Page 56 of Into the Woods

Leaning into her, I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Becca, we’ve got a lot to talk about. There’s a lot of stuff I should have told you that I didn’t.”

“Stuff about my dad?” Fear trickled into her eyes, and she nibbled her bottom lip.

Fuck if I didn’t want to kiss the worry away. But she wasn’t ready for that, and I hadn’t earned the right.

Yet.

I stiffened on instinct as the door was pulled open. A second later, Bishop popped into view.

He grinned. “Bex!” He swept her into a massive hug, lifting her off her feet.

And I wanted to punch him in the dick.

Asshole.

“Mind if I get this shit inside?” I groused, as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and giggled.

Bishop walked backwards, still carrying Becca, and gave me space to get inside.

Finally over it, I snapped, “Put her down. We need to get upstairs, not draw attention.”

Bishop slowly lowered her to her feet. “God, he’s a moody fucker. You look good, Bex.”

She blushed, ducking her head so innocently it was all I could do not to pull her into my arms and take her straight back to the car. Drive her as far away as we could get. Find a place where no one could ever find us.

“He’s had a rough night,” Becca agreed, shocking the shit out of me when she came back to my side.

Bishop’s brows lifted as he shot me a curious look. Without missing a beat, he grabbed the suitcase from me. “Rook filled me in a little.”

“There’s more,” I said, my tone grim. This wasn’t a social visit; Becca was here because she was in danger. “Let’s get up to the room.”

Nodding, Bishop led the way. He used his keycard to activate the elevator and access our floor.

Ash had scouted locations and picked this property. While we weren’t sure of the exact location of the auction, we knew a lot of deals between these fuckers went down at Aubergine. There were too many meetings there with too many players we’d identified as part of the network of flesh peddlers. Staying close to the restaurant seemed like the best idea.

The hotel itself was smaller and decidedly less ostentatious than a lot of other Parisian hotels. But that also worked in our favor. The boutique hotel was lax on things like cybersecurity, which let Ash slide in and do his thing, essentially erasing any traces of us in the city by using aliases and glitching security feeds to keep our faces hidden when we left our room.

It wasn’t a foolproof plan, but it was good enough to handle recon.

I knew the day was coming that I wouldn’t be able to hide behind anonymity, or bank on some of the sleazeballs seeing me as just an extension of my father. One day I wouldn’t be the guy doing the groundwork. I’d be the guy with the law degree untangling red tape and knowing just how far I could bend certain laws.

We all had our roles to play in setting up Phoenix.

“How’ve you been, Bex?” Bishop asked, leaning against the elevator wall and giving her a lazy once-over before turning to smirk at me.

Fucker knew exactly what he was doing. Instead of taking the bait, I exhaled and leaned against the opposite wall before averting my gaze toward the ceiling.

“Oh, you know,” Becca chirped, a false note of happiness souring her tone. “Parents getting divorced, moving to the other side of the planet. Oh! But I did meet this guy. Seemed pretty cool for a sex trafficker.”

Bishop chuckled. “Yeah, some of them are real charmers.”

She let out a heavy sigh. “Too bad. I really saw us going places.”

“Oh?”

Becca nodded, keeping up the game. “Yeah, you know. Marriage. Babies. Maybe a cat?”

“You’re allergic,” I reminded her, my tone sharper than I’d intended, remembering the time she was five and tried to befriend a stray kitten. Her eyes had swelled shut, and hives had sprouted all over her arms and hands.

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